tsunami

Hi All,

Just wanted to say a quick hi since I finally got some internet. Seriously internet access in NZ is hard to come by unless you are willing to pay an arm and a leg. Thankfully we met up with our old neighbor, Dean, and he had an internet card so we can gain some access. We met up with him and some friends yesterday at a concert in a small town. We got into the concert about an hour before it ended and for FREE!! We searched and finally found Dean in the sea of people!!!It was so nice seeing him and catching up. We stayed with them last night at the motel!

We woke up to the news and instantly heard about the earthquake in Chile. Yikes. What is happening in this world. Unfortunately the earthquake was not only felt in Chile but there are tsunami warnings in NZ. The east coast is only affected but the waves are expected to be between 1 and 3 meters. Just want you all to know we are safe and away from the coast.

I will try and write more in a day or so! Hope all is well and we miss you guys! I can almost say, we will see you NEXT month!!!!!!!

Love,
B and K8

Pictures from NZ!

Sheep were seriously being herded across the highway! (the little herding dog was so smart and adorable)

A successful night of camping! With Brett in the tent and me in the care, that is!!

NZ coastline!

Franz Josef Glacier

Hi All,

Just wanted to give you all an update on our travels. We are currently in Nelson, NZ staying at caravan park getting ready to board the ferry on Saturday for the north island. The ferry ride looks really nice. It is a 3 hour trip through some islands and it crossed part of the Tasman Sea. Brett and I also got the vaccines we needed. Brett had most of his up-to-date because of Africa so he only required typhoid. I got a typhoid and hep. A combo shot as well as a tetanus booster. All went well except that my arm has been dead sore from the tetanus shot. I have been getting out of driving because my arm is too sore to shift the gears. Hahah, I have a feeling I will have to relieve Brett sometime tomorrow.

We have been having a great time in NZ. It is very different than Australia and while we were totally unprepared it has been fun and very beautiful. There are tons of mountains, lakes, amazing coastlines and lots of fun things to see! Brett has been working really hard on his class and thankfully the computer has been holding up. We plan to send it home after NZ.

Hope all is well at home. I will give you all another update once we cross over to the north!

Love,

B and K8

Well, we are going to the doctor tomorrow morning… but not for our colds. They seem to be lingering but maybe getting a little better. Doesn't it mean you are getting better when you nose literally runs ALL day long! Hopefully... We are actually going to a travel doctor in Queenstown to get the vaccinations and medications we need for Asia. We should be getting a couple shots as well as some antibiotics in case we need them. My plan is to be soooo careful that I won't need any meds once we get there. Pray for me please!!! We have started to plan the Asia part of our trip a little more and we are currently looking into buying a few more plane tickets so we have a few destinations picked out! We will keep you all posted on our plans and locations.

We stayed last night in a town called Te Anau, which is beautiful. We stayed at a holiday park/caravan park but instead of the tent I went for it and rented a cabin for $50 so we had a bed and a warm room to sleep in!!! The facilities were nice and we were able to use the kitchen so we had a nice meal for dinner and breakfast! We definitely have not been going hungry while here. We are headed out this morning for Queenstown where we will hang out for the day, explore and then go to the doctor first thing in the morning. Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world and you can skydive, bungee jump, base jump and go nuts. I don't plan to do any of those things but Brett has been chatting about wanting too. Yikes. I will do my best to talk him away from the cliff J. We have plans to make it to the ferry crossing by the 26^th so we can cross and meet up with our neighbor from Port Douglas. Dean lived next to us and is originally from Auckland. While we were living in Port he went back home and now we get to meet up with him outside of Wellington to go to a concert. We plan to let him show us around while driving back to Auckland or somewhere close. It should be fun to see him again and hang out with him! He is a true Kiwi and meeting him in Port was a treat. It will be nice to see a familiar face as well!

I hope you like the pictures I just posted. I wanted to get a few up and it was actually quite hard to choose just a few good ones but I did my best. Everything we have seen so far has been so beautiful and amazing. The scenery makes up for the freezing weather. Hopefully it will get a little warmer up north.

Well, we just wanted to say hi and give a little update!! Hope all is well with everyone at home. We miss you and send our love. We are also excited to see everyone on April 7^th! We bought our tickets home and we will be arriving around 1pm on the 7^th. We fly from Hong Kong to San Fran and then on to Seattle!

Love,

B and K8

A Few Pictures From Our Latest Travels

Hiking at Mt. Cook

Mirror Lakes in Fjordland National Park

Boat cruise at Fjordland National Park

Moreaki Boulders- They are literally falling apart and inside is this pretty gemstone

Well, this will be a bit of a quick post because we are now paying for internet.... ugggg. We have been making our way around NZ and while it is really pretty it is also really really COLD. I have never felt so unprepared. We have already bought two sleeping bags and slept in the car all 3 nights we have been here. We tried the tent last night because it had finally stopped raining but let me tell you, I never get closterphobic, but put me in a one-man tent with two sleeping bags, two people, no room to sit up and all the doors zipped and I freak out. I layed in the tent for about an hour listening to Brett happily sleeping and I had to get out. I slept in the car while he stayed in the tent. This should make for an interesting two weeks. And to add to all this excitment we BOTH somehow picked up the exact same cold on the same night... Weird I know. I am not sure how that it physically possible but two nights ago we both went to sleep feeling a little funny and we were constantly swallowing. We thought it may be due to the cold wet weather and sleeping outside but we are not convinced because it wont go away and now we both have a sore throat, a stuffy nose and a bit of a runny nose. We hope it doesn't get any worse but instead better because it is hard to be out seeing the sights when we don't feel great. The only good thing is that at least we both have it so one is not down while the other is fine.

We are currently in Dunedin, which is a very pretty city. It is finally sunny today and we have had a nice drive. We went to Mount Cook yesterday which is the tallest mountain in NZ and it was beautiful. There were amazing lakes and streams which was literally more blue than the sky. It was breathtaking. We are enjoying NZ now that the weather is better but it is still cold. We are headed toward Milford Sound tomorrow and than Queenstown followed by Fjordland, Fox Glacier, the west coast, a short ferry crossing to the north island and than after exploring up north for a bit we head out of here on the 4th of March!

All is well here and I will try to get on soon to post some pictures!!! Miss you all.

Love, B and K8

As I write to you I am staring at a Krispy Kreme light up logo and a sign for the international flights departing out of the Melbourne airport. Random, I know! We are flying to Christchurch, NZ in the morning and while we are not totally cheap we really did not want to pay for another night in a hotel so we decided to head to the airport a day early and sleep here! Sounds a little crazy but really it is quite nice. We have even been directed to a couch by the security officer! Plus we are not the only ones here. We saw a group of 3 people in the same situation as us but unfortunately they missed their flight this evening so they are waiting until tomorrow night. Ugg..

So yes, NZ tomorrow!!! I excited for many reasons. 1. I am excited to see something totally new! We have heard so many awesome things about NZ and the pictures that we have seen look stunning. 2. I am excited to be starting the next leg of our journey! I have looked at this whole adventure in 3 parts: Australia, NZ and Asia! We are finally to stage 2. 3. I am happy that NZ is getting close because it is one step closer to coming home. No, I am not sad or wishing I was not here but as the date quickly gets closer I am getting really excited to see everyone and have certain things back as I know them! 4. I am excited to get Brett to Denver and into nursing school. He has been taking his online ethics class for Regis and he is totally into it! He loves learning about anything medical and has been expressing an interest in so many different types of nursing. It is really fun to see him growing, getting excited and falling in love with his chosen career path!

While in Melbourne we did EVERYTHING we could have ever wanted to. The city has two different free public transit services so basically we rode them to our heart's content. By the end we were even able to quote some of the tourist information being announced over the speakers! We saw the Melbourne Park, which houses the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the Rod Laver stadium for the Australian Open. We saw Little Italy, Chinatown, Avatar at the 3-D IMAX theatre, tons of gardens, St. Kilda beach and the Australia kiteboarding competition and so much more! We had such a great time and quickly realized why Melbourne has such a great reputation!

I have been hearing a lot about home and I am excited about everything that is going on there! Please continue to update us and we will do the same. For now I am off to search the net for some flights and hotels in Kuala Lumpur. We have tickets to fly into there on March 4^th and I am thinking it would be nice to have a place set up for our arrival!!!

Love,

B and K8

OK, I know it has been awhile since posting but we have been busy and waiting for a few things to happen since the last post. We officially sold the van and somehow we made $1000 in our sale! We got into a bit of a bidding war and without asking we made money! Pretty sweet huh?!?! The extra money will definitely be funding our trip and allowed us to have a nice Valentine's Day dinner out! We went to Little Italy here in Melbourne for dinner and it was awesome. We had homemade pasta, an antipasto place and some supper yummy house wine. It was a great day.

We also drove the Great Ocean Road a few days ago which was breathtaking! The sights and beaches were simply beautiful. We had a little bit of misty ocean weather but it made the beaches and oceans a little spooky which was neat! We are now in the Miami Hotel in Melbourne!







We stayed here last night and will again tonight. We have been seeing all the sights and thoroughly enjoying Melbourne! It is a very nice, clean and friendly city that, thankfully, is a lot like Sydney when it comes to public transportation! It is easy to get around and Brett and I have been spending all our time on free transportation. It gets us right where we need to be and is really quite fast as well. Today we are headed to the AC/DC exhibition before the concert tonight. I have a feeling I will be a little out of my element at the show but I guess that is what this entire trip has been.

While in Melborne we attended the St. Kilda festival which also had a lot of kiting! Brett was stoked!

We are getting really excited for NZ and our upcoming travels. We have a little less than 2 months and than we get to see all of you!!!!!! We hope all is well at home. We miss everyone but we are excited to see you soon!! Please wish us well in all the upcoming flights!

Love,
B and K8

I thought I would give you a little update while we are driving! Brett is rocking out to AC/DC in preparation for the concert he recently bought tickets to. We are going to a final farewell AC/DC concert in the bands hometown on Monday the 15th! It costing us an arm and a leg but Brett felt totally obligated to attend and I am actually quite excited to see something so rare and exciting for my husband!

We are currently driving to a smaller town outside of Melbourne to show the van to an interested buyer. We are meeting a ladies son who is going to look at it for her. She is looking for a van to take to Tasmania for a little while. Brett and I were recently talking about going to the island of Tassie but unfortunately the time is not allowing us to do everything we want so we are going to instead continue with our plans of the Great Ocean Road, NZ and Asia before returning home! The people calling seem very interested in the van which is bittersweet. We are excited that it seems like the chance of it selling is really good but we are also sad because it means we are leaving soon.

Some fun things we have done lately are:

We got to see the world smallest penguins, Fiery Penguins, make their daily trek across the beach on Phillip Island to their burrows in the sand dunes. We watched about 1000 penguins cross the beach and than we got to follow them up to their burrows. It was incredible and so crazy! It is amazing that they are wild and we didn't disrupt their daily commute from water to burrows. Many of the penguins had chicks waiting for them with hungry tummies and some were simply returning for a sleep, a mating session and even some didn't even leave their burrows because they are stuck on land for 3 weeks without food and water because they are in the molting process. Every year the Fairy Penguins grow a new layer of feathers and during this process they cannot go in the water because they are not waterproof. It was well worth the $20 admission price per person! The penguins were so cute and watching them walk/waddle makes you wonder if their flippers are really there for help or just flapping aimlessly! :) Unfortunately no camera were allowed so we had to simple look and we don't have anything to share with you. However, I am sure there are pictures on google if you are dying to see them!

We also have been to the Mornington Peninsula which had two major attractions for us. I really wanted to go to Sorrento, which is my favorite city in Italy and this town is doing its best to mimic the sleepy Italian town. We, of course, got a cappuccino, window shopped, browsed a few stores and took it all in! Second on the list while on the peninsula was the wineries. The Mornington Peninsula is very well known for being the Pinot Noir capital of Australia and if you know my husband's wine taste he is a pinot man so a trip there was a must! We purchased a bottle from a winery there and thoroughly enjoyed it while eating dinner at an impossible place to describe!

We are spending the next few days meeting people for the van and seeing more and more before we leave! We have lots on the list and once we cross them off we will inform you!!

Love,
B and K8